Toxic sludge almost the size of Gulf Oil spill

THE mighty Danube was apparently absorbing Hungary’s massive toxic red sludge spill with little immediate harm, officials reported yesterday – even though the amount of caustic slurry spewed over the western part of the country was nearly as great as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Revising even higher than earlier estimates, government officials said the reservoir break at an alumina plant on Monday dumped 600,000 to 700,000 cubic metres of sludge onto three villages – not much less in a few hours than the 200 million gallons the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf over several months starting in April.

“The consequences do not seem to be that dramatic,” said Philip Weller, who heads the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube, when asked about harm to the waterway’s ecosystem up to now.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the threat to the Danube had been eliminated.

“We managed to take control of the situation in time,” the state MTI news agency quoted him as saying.

But the risk of pervasive and lasting environmental damage remained, with laboratory analyses organised by Greenpeace showing high concentrations of toxic substances in samples of the sludge.

Greenpeace told reporters in Vienna yesterday that the samples taken a day after the spill showed “surprisingly high” levels of arsenic and mercury. The analysis suggested that roughly 50 tons of arsenic, 300 tons of chrome and half a ton of mercury was set free by the spill, Greenpeace officials said.

Greenpeace officials said the detected arsenic concentration is twice the amount normally found in so-called red mud. Analysis of water in a canal near the spill also found arsenic levels 25 times the limit for drinking water.

With rain giving way to dry, warmer weather over the past two days, the caustic mud is increasingly turning to airborne dust, which can cause respiratory problems, said Hungary’s state secretary for the environment, Zoltan Illes.

“Wind can blow ... that heavy metal contamination through the respiratory system,” he said.

Government emergency services officials yesterday urged residents near the toxic flood area to wear face masks.

The warnings conflicted with the view of the prestigious Hungarian Academy of Sciences which said that while the material remained hazardous, its heavy metal concentrations were not considered dangerous for the environment.

“The academy can say whatever it wants,” fumed Barbara Szalai Szita, who lives in Devecser, one of the hardest-hit villages. “All I know is that if I spend 30 minutes outside I get a foul taste in my mouth and my tongue feels strange.”

Officials with Hungary’s national disaster relief service, meanwhile, said seven people had now died with unspecified injuries sustained in the flooding. The three latest victims have not been identified.

Free access to Kolontar, closest to the leak, was shut off to media yesterday, with officials saying the crush of reporters and TV crews was interfering with cleanup work. Media members were being allowed in only three times a day and assigned minders.

The red sludge devastated creeks and rivers near the spill site, and entered the Danube on Thursday,moving downstream yesterday toward Hungary’s immediate neighbours, Croatia, Serbia and Romania. Monitors were taking samples every few hours to measure damage from the spill but Europe’s second largest river, appeared to be absorbing the blow due to its huge volume of water.